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THE HISTORY CENTER BLOG

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  • Fri, March 15, 2024 5:40 PM | Anonymous


    ODAR: An Immigrant Story embedded in Ithaca History

    Contact: Denice Peter Karamardian  607-227-3830

    March 6, 2024…….Denice Peter Karamardian grew up in Ithaca, New York, thinking she was Syrian – part of the small Syrian community that co-mingled with Greek, Italian, and other 20th century immigrant communities that helped to build the little city from the turn of the 20th century. She was partly right. Both of her paternal grandparents came from Syria and spoke in Syrian. But at the age of 12, she learned that her grandfather was actually Armenian and certain mysteries and stories emerged upon his death. Denice spent a lifetime searching for answers and details.

    The result is a trilogy, presented in a hybrid form as historical fiction and part memoire, based entirely upon the true story of the Karamardian family (known locally as the Peter family) across continents, wars, and generations. The series is called Odar, which means “other” in Armenian; sometimes it can mean “stranger” or “foreigner”. The author tracks a parallel narration of her own coming of age as it relates to the discoveries she makes in her search for identity.

    Book One release: April 9th, 2024

    The first book is titled Jido (pronounced Jih’ doh), meaning grandfather in the Syrian/Lebanese dialect of the family, tells of Joe Peter, born Hovsep Bedros Karamardian. His journey from Kessab, Syria to the salt block in Myers, NY, by way of the Caribbean, rests longingly in the Ithaca community before following the immigrant wave to Detroit and the good paying wages of the auto industry. But back home, trouble is brewing for the Armenians of Kessab.

    Book Two release: June 11, 2024

    Book Two: Silence, a Journey to Resilience and Redemption sines a spotlight on two contrasting worlds while war gathers across the globe. Women of the family in Syria endure unspeakable events narrated in their own words as Joe and Helen Peter build their family in new communities. As the war recedes and a second sister is rescued, resettle among the Ithaca hills the young couple has so missed. In another century, the author meets and discovers family previously unknown to her Ithaca family.

    Book Three release: August 20, 2024

    Book Three: Amirkans. The next generation of the Peter clan thrive on a South Danby farm and face a new war, while a family branch in Syria is making a national impact on that country. With ultimate emigration, journeys converge across two American coasts. Meanwhile, the author grapples with myths and misinformation in pursuit of questions, but no less inspired with the wonder of resilience and triumph of mankind when nothing else will do.

                                                                ###

    Press release shared here with permission of Denice Karamardian. Learn more at www.denicekaramardian.com

  • Fri, March 15, 2024 2:22 PM | Anonymous
    Spotlight on the Exhibit

    Throughout the year we will include highlights from our current exhibit 'A Sporting Chance: On and Off the Field' to connect those readers who haven't gotten to visit in person yet! This Women's History Month we want to highlight the history of women and girls hockey in Tompkins County. 

    We Broke the Ice: Girls & Women's Ice Hockey - A collaboration with Mary Grainger and the  Tompkins Girls Hockey Association

    With the passing of Title IX in 1972, the Tompkins Girls Hockey Association became the first all-girls hockey program in New York State, and the third in the country. 

    Ithaca High School sophomores Linda Dominick and Margaret Stanton got things started recruiting other girls for a June 1972 camp with Cornell Men’s Hockey Coach Dick Bertrand. Parents (including Ithaca Youth Bureau President Bruce Wilkins) worked to prepare for the first TGHA season with 60 participants. In 1973, the Ithaca Shooting Stars travel team was also offered but all participants practiced and played in the house league, too.

    A school sponsored team was not available for girls hockey in Tompkins until the state-wide GREAT campiagn was launched during the 1998 Olympics. “Girls Really Expect A Team” founder Mitzi Witchger educated and inspired Ithaca decision-makers as well as those she met during her tour of NYS. Ithaca, Oswego, Canton and Saranac Lake school boards approved the first four teams. IHS proceeded to win the first three state titles in 2001, 2002 and 2003, and again in 2011.

    Visit 'A Sporting Chance' now through December 2024 to learn more about TGHA and explore memorabilia from their first 50 years. 

  • Fri, March 15, 2024 2:21 PM | Anonymous
    Last Month at The History Center

    A Sporting Chance: On and Off the Field’, opened Friday February 2nd at the Tompkins Center for History and Culture. We had a phenomenal crowd turn out during Gallery Night, with wonderful performances from the Vociferous Cruciferous Chorus, a ceremonial rutabaga curl by Mayor Rob Cantelmo following a heartening cheer performance from the Rutabaga Curl Girls. 

    Our thanks to local news WBNG-12, The Ithaca Voice, Ithaca Times, ICTV, What's Hot NY, and WICB for helping spread the word about the new exhibit! You can find their coverage and insights on the displays at thehistorycenter.net/press

    ---------------------------
    Our director Ben Sandberg spent the weekend in #WashingtonDC with over 300 other  #museumprofessionals for #MuseumAdvocacyDay 2024   ️. Museum Advocacy Day is an annual event coordinated by @aamersofficial for museums workers to speak directly with legislators to communicate the value of museums and support their continued funding on the federal level.

    The History Center has received major funding in recent years from federal legislation supporting the arts including major funds from National Endowment for the Humanities, American Historical Association, and Institute of Museum and Library Services. Learn about the #tompkinshistory projects and programming these funds supported at thehistorycenter.net/grants
    ---------------------------
    In our fourth year of the annual Douglass Day Transcribe-a-thon our 13 History Center volunteers contributed to digitizing over 100 pages from Frederick Douglass' General Correspondence Records held by the Library of Congress. At the start of the day there were 8,763 records to transcribe, over 7,800 of those now have transcriptions thanks to the work of volunteers (including ours!) across the country. 

  • Wed, March 06, 2024 4:06 PM | Anonymous

    Zoë Van Nostrand is transitioning out of her Community Engagement role at The History Center in Tompkins County at the end of March 2024.

    Zoë joined The History Center team in November of 2019 as the Marketing & Visitor Experience Coordinator and after four and a half years is leaving behind a wealth of improved digital access, hands-on programming, strengthened community relations, and a revitalized volunteer and student worker program that stood the test of the early years of the pandemic. The History Center fully supports her in her transition and is deeply appreciative of all the projects she has taken on over her years here. Below are some highlights (but definitely not all) of her various projects and improvements she leaves behind for our local history community.

    Whether you know it or not, Zoë has been the "voice" behind many of the communications you've seen, heard, or read from The History Center over the past 4+ years. She stewarded and grew our social media platforms on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter fully doubling our following and engagement numbers on each platform, as well as in general press coverage; and created from scratch active platforms on LinkedIn, a YouTube Channel with now over 80 local history videos and just shy of 200 followers; and a SoundCloud with playlists exploring oral history, local history radio segments, and local historic music performances. She has also written the majority of our monthly 'History Happenings' digital newsletters, and facilitated a lot of the press and articles about museum exhibits and public programs. As a new person takes over these digital spaces in the coming months expect that some of these communication practices will evolve to embrace the approach of our new marketing staff!

    Zoë spearheaded the total re-design of our website thehistorycenter.net during the 2020 lock-down and has written and designed the content on at least 90% of the 100+ web pages we have available there in the four years since. The most elaborate of her projects has been the continued emphasis on telling historically  marginalized and underrepresented histories of our Tompkins County community across all our platforms. Since 2021 she facilitated student projects, co-researched, and co-wrote over a dozen history and heritage month web pages and corresponding social media posts. These women, Black, Asian, Filipino, Irish, Deaf, immigrant, Arab, disabled, LGBTQ+, and other often left-out histories are now more easily found. We hope that this effort will encourage more historically underrepresented communities to reach out to document their histories and donate materials to The History Center's archival collections supporting the institutions efforts in telling diverse and true histories of Tompkins County.

    In addition Zoë spearheaded two major grants that completed the archival processing of over 230 interviews from our Oral Histories of Tompkins County Audio Archives, and the creation of seven identity-themed oral history collections.

    She curated and co-designed two small-scale collaborative exhibits; Art of Wampum (November 2021), and Unfolding: A Timeline of Sexual Assault Activism in Tompkins County (May-June 2022), and supervised all public hours of the museum Exhibit Hall since we re-opened in August 2020.



    Some of the projects that she's most proud to leave behind are the wealth of materials created through her supervision of dozens of docent, volunteer, and student workers and many community collaborations. The proof of which is present across every platform and aspect of our operations.  Especially her work with our volunteers and student workers on many accessibility and engagement initiatives. From the co-design of the 'Resources for Visitors on the Autism Spectrum' guides, completion of closed captions for 70+ videos on YouTube,

    coordination of Spanish translations for four of our 'History at Home' children's activity booklets, coordination and promotion of 30+ audio versions of our self-guided walking and biking history tours, and finalizing over 200 transcripts for the Oral Histories of Tompkins County Collection. She is thrilled that each of these projects have the power to connect new audiences with our shared local history and archival materials. 

                    

    Keep in touch with Zoë's next pursuits on LinkedIn and wish her well in her new position (emails and snail-mailed messages of appreciation are welcome)!

    Please offer The History Center a bit of grace as we get hire for the new position of Community Engagement Manager, and understand there may be a slow down in our public programs and collaborations as we get a new staff member up to speed.

  • Sat, February 24, 2024 10:23 PM | Anonymous

    This #BlackHistoryMonth we are very excited to share with you a wealth of newly digitized resources from our archival collections exploring and documenting Black history, individuals, and communities in #Ithaca and #TompkinsCounty. These six written works have been available in our archives for decades, and now are all fully digitized and available as PDFs for reading and downloading from The History Center website at thehistorycenter.net/black-history.

    Our thanks to the New York State Council on the Artsfor funding the digitization of these materials and supporting #blackhistorydigitization efforts in #TompkinsCounty. We look forward to continuing the work to keep our archives accessible for our full community. Find the links to these documents always at thehistorycenter.net/black-history


    Our thanks to the New York State Council on the Arts for supporting

    the digitization of these materials through grant funds in 2023.


  • Sat, February 24, 2024 10:03 PM | Anonymous


    We are absolutely thrilled to share that through a collaboration with Pegasys Community Media Center last fall you can now watch nearly twenty programs and events hosted by The History Center over the last decade on our YouTube channel. These programs were recorded by Pegasys and aired on local news channels, but weren't previously available online. 

    Now you can access vital past programs such as 'Getting Hitched: How Tompkins County Contributed to Winning Marriage Equality', and Saved From the Wrecking Ball - Community Panel, and over a dozen other programs. 

    EXPLORE THE FULL PLAYLIST Local History Pegasys Community Media Center


    We hope that this extensive addition to our online video materials provides opportunities for our audiences who can't always visit Tompkins County in-person more opportunities to learn about our history. Our thanks especially to Lauren Stefanelli for recording and editing these programs in the first place and collaborating with us again to bring them to new viewers. 

  • Sat, February 24, 2024 9:49 PM | Anonymous

    This newsletter was researched and compiled by the staff of the Hangar Theatre and first shared to their email lists on February 9th 2024. It is shared here with their permission. The Hangar will be highlighting their storied history throughout 2024 and their "golden season". Follow along and tag them in your own Hangar memories on social media! 

  • Fri, February 23, 2024 5:51 PM | Anonymous

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 2/21/2024

    CONTACT: Christine O’Malley (christine@historicithaca.org) or 

    Eve Snyder (historyforge@thehistorycenter.net


    Photographs of City of Ithaca from 1950s-1960s recently digitized and made publicly available on Tompkins HistoryForge & New York Heritage Digital Collections

    Image of 212 Cascadilla Street. 212 Cascadilla has a long history of historically significant Black families living under its roof. Present day 212 Cascadilla features two historical markers.

    Embark on a journey through time one click at a time! Historic Ithaca and The History Center join forces to bring you a digital archive of 1950s-1960s tax photograph index cards – a visual feast for history lovers! New resources are available free online for individuals or groups interested in the City of Ithaca’s built environment. Historic Ithaca (HI), a non-profit preservation organization, and The History Center in Tompkins County (THC), an education and research center preserving the history of Tompkins County, NY, collaborated and received a grant from the South Central Regional Library Council (SCRLC) to digitize HI’s collection of 5790 images of Ithaca tax photograph index cards from the 1950s-1960s and connect them to corresponding building records on the Tompkins HistoryForge platform (tompkins.historyforge.net). The images depict all taxable buildings in the City of Ithaca at that time including residences, businesses, and industries. 

    These taxable building index cards offer a unique view of the built environment of a small Upstate New York city in the mid-20th century. They are valuable research tools for historians, genealogists, teachers, City of Ithaca employees, architects, city planners, builders, homeowners, and community members, serving as a publicly available tool that can trace the history of a building, streetscape, or neighborhood, and the changes to Ithaca’s built environment. These images will be useful for local history projects and projects related to housing trends and neighborhood evolution.

    The complete image collection is now available online through Historic Ithaca’s collection on New York Heritage Digital Collections website (https://nyheritage.org/organizations/historic-ithaca) and on The History Center’s innovative open-source digital history platform HistoryForge (www.tompkins.historyforge.net). HistoryForge provides historical context for the photographs. Each image is attached to a georeferenced record of that building on HistoryForge which can be viewed on current (Google) or over a dozen historical map layers on The Forge (our map page). Along with additional information about the buildings themselves, residential buildings also contain links to the members of each household who lived in them from historical censuses (1880-1950). A short video offering tips on how to use it can be found here: HistoryForge How-to: Local History using History Forge's maps, photos, and census records


    Having these visual records of the past available online allows these items to be readily available to a wide audience and easily accessed by anyone with a computer, tablet, or smartphone. The photographs offer unique snapshots of Ithaca’s built environment in the mid-20th century. Some of the buildings on the tax photograph cards have been demolished and some of the buildings have been greatly altered.  For many of the buildings, these images are the only surviving record of their appearance. The images are in copyright with non-commercial use permitted, so they can be used for educational and personal use.


    About Tompkins HistoryForge: Tompkins HistoryForge is the model site of the HistoryForge platform: historyforge.net. HistoryForge is an innovative open-source digital history platform developed by The History Center in Tompkins County which combines historic census records, maps, and other local history resources to tell the story of Tompkins County. HistoryForge relies on local history enthusiasts to help expand the resources available on our platform. Learn more at tompkins.historyforge.net and #ExploreHistoryForge.


    About Historic Ithaca: Established in 1966 as a community response to threats to downtown Ithaca landmarks, Historic Ithaca is the non-profit voice for preservation in Tompkins County and the Finger Lakes Region. 

    Our headquarters are located at 210 and 212 Center Street in Ithaca’s historic Southside neighborhood.  Significant Elements and Work Preserve are housed in a 130-year old manufacturing building at 212, and our offices and library are next door at 210 inside a former neighborhood grocery. The Plain Street Mural completed in 2011 depicts the fascinating history of this rare surviving example of a timber-frame industrial building. You can follow along @historicithaca and @significantelementssalvage on Instagram and Facebook.


    About The History Center: The History Center in Tompkins County is a generation-to generation education and research center focused on engaging the public with the history of Tompkins County (located in the ancestral and contemporary lands of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫ' Nation) and the Finger Lakes region. The History Center helps people use the tools of history to understand the past, gain perspective on the present, and play an informed role in shaping the future. The History Center is located within the Tompkins Center for History & Culture. Learn more at thehistorycenter.net and follow @TompkinsHistory on any platform.


    ###

  • Fri, January 26, 2024 7:38 PM | Anonymous

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    CONTACT: Zoë Van Nostrand – Marketing &

    Community Engagement 

    community@thehistorycenter.net 

    607-273-8284 ext. 229 (W-Sat 10-6pm)


    The History Center in Tompkins County ‘A Sporting Chance: On and Off the Field' exhibit opens Friday February 2nd

    ITHACA NY- The History Center in Tompkins County announces their next major exhibit ‘A Sporting Chance: On and Off the Field’, to open on February 2nd 2024 at the Tompkins Center for History and Culture located on the Ithaca Commons.The History Center's new exhibit explores the stories of local athletes, teams, and the community that cheered them on. From league tournaments to pick-up games in the park, our community history of sports balls, paddles, and skates traverses water, ice, air, and land.

    Sports and athleticism allow us to explore narratives of achievement and empowerment, even as they are complicated by stories of erasure and exclusivity. As we consider what it means to be an athlete in Tompkins County today, or two hundred years ago, we also get to celebrate the crowds that cheered, parents that drove our youngest athletes to early morning practices, and camaraderie and community both on the field and off. Join us for memories familiar and forgotten as we highlight the history of sports across Tompkins County. 

    HOURS - Beginning in February 2024 The History Center will now be open Wednesday-Saturday 10am-6pm each week. Selected drop-in hours, without prior appointment, in the Research Library & Archives will begin in mid-February.

    SCHEDULE OF EVENTS FOR OPENING DAY

    • Exhibit opens at 10am on Friday February 2nd

    • 5-8pm - Gallery Night in Downtown Ithaca

    • 6pm - Vociferous Cruciferous Chorus, and the "Curl Girls" will perform in The History Center atrium, with Miss Rutabaga 1973 available for pictures. 

    • 6:15pm Ithaca Mayor Rob Cantelmo will curl a celebratory rutabaga in the museum.

    Visitors are encouraged to wear their favorite Tompkins County sports memorabilia, International Rutabaga Curl inspired costume, or classic jerseys to opening night. 

    Food & drink provided by Beautifully Charcuterie and Ports of New York

    Exhibit opens Friday February 2nd and is on display through December 2024. Follow @TompkinsHistory and thehistorycenter.net/sporting-chance for updates.

    This exhibit is possible with thanks to many of our collaborators who shared their personal sports histories, including: Adrian Cooper, Amy Somchanhmavong, Mary Grainger, Charles DeMotte, Ithaca League of Women Rollers, the Ithaca Farmers Market, and Special Olympics New York.

    About The History Center: The History Center in Tompkins County is a generation-to-generation education and research center focused on engaging the public with the history of Tompkins County (located in the ancestral and contemporary lands of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ Nation) and the Finger Lakes region. The History Center helps people use the tools of history to understand the past, gain perspective on the present, and play an informed role in shaping the future. The History Center is located within the Tompkins Center for History & Culture. Learn more at thehistorycenter.net and follow @TompkinsHistory on any platform. 

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  • Wed, December 13, 2023 4:17 PM | Anonymous

    I’ve never been one for year end retrospectives. At The History Center, we deal in decades and centuries, which can overshadow the change or transition that occurs in a single year. But as we approach the beginning of the new year, I’m looking forward to building on all of our team’s work over the past year for an exciting 2024. Whether or not you enjoy the look back each December, what holds true is that both last year and next year would not be possible without the generous support of our local history family. Your support of our shared history is vital for the next generations to call Tompkins County home. On their behalf, I want to express my profound gratitude for your willingness to join me and hundreds of others in this important mission.

    The core of our work isn’t particularly flashy; it’s the routine and careful storage, care, use, and interpretation of everything from family quilts to atomic toilets, from 19th century maps to jpegs. Each item - capturing a moment or a practice or a person – demands a unique and specific type of care. And that care needs to be repeated, once again not on a yearly basis but over decades and centuries. The total sum of work involved in this preservation is hard to quantify, but it is demonstrably more than any one group or organization could accomplish on their own. This is why we are so lucky to count you part of our local history team. Every day, I can see how blessed we are to have such a passionate and invested community as partners in preservation, in learning, and in exploration.

    We’re always looking for more partners in local history! I hope you will join us throughout the coming year to explore a wide range of history through our next exhibit, new and favorite programs, and more preservation initiatives. Even better, if you join us for a CHAT, a vintage baseball game, a walking tour, or a new exhibit, I hope you will invite a friend to join our local history family. Their lives will be richer for it, and so will ours. Together, we can share the charge to steward our local history into the future. Thank you for joining us this past year, and I’m thrilled to have you along for the ride next year.

    With appreciation and gratitude,

    Ben Sandberg

    Executive Director

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Physical Address

Located inside the Tompkins Center for History & Culture

110 North Tioga Street

(On the Ithaca Commons) 

Ithaca NY, 14850 USA

Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫˀ Territory

Hours

Exhibit Hall Wednesday-Saturday 10am-6pm - CLOSED Sun-Tues

Cornell Local History Research Library & Archives - By appointment only. Please contact archives@thehistorycenter.net

Contact                                                     

Email: Refer to Contact page for individual emails, General inquiries to community@thehistorycenter.net

Phone: 607-273-8284

Web: thehistorycenter.net

Find us on social media @tompkinshistory

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